In 2015, Brighton offered Advanced Placement (AP) classes in numerous subjects, including Calculus (AB and BC), Biology, Physics (1, 2, and C), Chemistry, Environmental Science, Economics, Government and Politics, Psychology, United States History, European History, Statistics, Studio Art, English Literature, English Language, Spanish, French, German, and Computer Science.[3]
Performance
Trophy case in the front lobby
The school has appeared on Newsweek magazine's Top 100 Public High Schools list. In 1998, Brighton achieved its highest ranking on the Newsweek list, in 5th place. In 2004, it was ranked 27th in the nation. In 2006, it was placed 96th. In 2007, it was placed 79th, one ahead of Pittsford Mendon High School. In 2008, it was ranked 158, fifth among schools in the Rochester area behind Pittsford Sutherland, Pittsford Mendon, Greece Odyssey and Wilson Magnet. Rankings fluctuate heavily based upon AP exams administered relative to the graduating senior class. In 2010, Brighton was placed 126th.[4]
In 2007, U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked Brighton High School 57th out of 18,790 public high schools. It was the only Monroe County school on the list.[5]
Publications and productions
Trapezoid is Brighton High School's monthly school newspaper. Sections include news, feature, opinion, in depth and sports.[6] The newspaper has repeatedly received a number of awards, including first place in the Bertram Freed Memorial Award Competition, and New York's Best Newspaper and Best Online Publication from the Empire State School Press Association for several years in a row.[7]
Crossroads, Brighton High School's yearbook, was founded in 1933. It is distributed at BHS's annual Springfest.[8]
Galaxy, created in 1954, is Brighton's art and literary magazine. Galaxy continues its tradition of holding meetings at students' homes on Sunday evenings.[9] Galaxy is entirely student-created, with the help of advisor and art teacher Debra Burger and is printed locally. In 2009, the magazine received a First Place with Special Merit award from the American Scholastic Press Association for its article on French sub ordinance. That same year, Jessy Randall (BHS class of 1988) published a young adult novel about Galaxy, The Wandora Unit.[10]Galaxy received the Gold/All New York Award, as well as the Award for Originality from the annual ESSPA (Empire State Scholastic Press Association) Conference in 2011. Many individual Galaxy members won Gold awards in their respective fields at this conference as well.[11]
The Morning Show began in the 1986–1987 school year with Brighton Beat, a precursor to The Morning Show. This show included one news and one interview show each week. In 1991, The Morning Show was officially created at BHS by producers Bennett Killmer and Joe Nussbaum, with the help of a teacher, Richard Tschorke. Nussbaum went on to direct the short film George Lucas in Love and the feature films Sleepover and Sydney White starring Amanda Bynes. Tschorke was the advisor to the club for twenty years, later to be succeeded by Chris French as the new club advisor. The show originally only had a few small cameras. Since then, it has grown to include two Blackmagic Design studio cameras, a Behringer Audio Mixer, a graphics program from Datavideo called CG-500 and a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Switcher.[12] The show started streaming over the internet exclusively starting in the 2015-2016 school year.[13]
Extracurricular activities
Many of Brighton's extracurricular teams have performed well in competitions:
Brighton Science Olympiad
The team was regional champion from 2010 to 2014.
In the year 2014, Brighton medalled in every single event.[14]
The team was the upstate NY champions in 2022 and 2023.[19]
Brighton was also the 2023 central NY champion,[20] with a 4th place finish in the state scholastic championship.[21]
Brighton Masterminds
The team was named Rochester regional champion in 1995, 1997, 2005, 2014, 2015, and 2019.[22]
In 2014 and 2015, the team placed second in the state championship meet.[23]
Brighton offers other extracurriculars, including Mock Trial, Prepworks Tutoring, Catalysts for Change, Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club, Climate Club, Brighton On Board (a board game focused club), Friends of Rachel, and Bruins e-Sports Club.[24]
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (December 2013)
Tina Monshipour Foster (1993), lawyer and director of the International Justice Network, focusing on providing "free legal assistance to victims of torture, illegal imprisonment, and political and religious persecution."[28]
